For the first time this season, the battle for pole position was held between 4 drivers, with Fernando Alonso also stepping into the fight in the final seconds of the Q3. The Spaniard was the first one to score a flying lap, after which his time was passed within a few seconds by Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and finally Hamilton.
Hamilton pushed hard in the dying second of the Q3 on super soft tires and his car almost ran out of fuel after the finish line.
Fifth overall was McLaren’s Jenson Button, who managed to pass Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi in the last seconds of the qualifying session. Felipe Massa will start from 7th place, ahead of Renault’s Robert Kubica, Force India’s Adrian Sutil and Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg.
Williams’ Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg both passed Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher in the final seconds of Q2, sending the German driver to 13th on the Sunday grid (the lowest starting position this season for the 7-time world champion). Renault’s Vitaly Petrov scored the 14th best time, ahead of STR duo Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari and BMW Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa.
Kamui Kobayashi managed to secure 18th place in his final flying lap of the Q1, avoiding a major surprise by Lotus’ Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn was close to passing the BMW Sauber driver for that spot – marking the first time a new car would have passed an old one in qualy – but eventually had to settle for 19th place, ahead of teammate Jarno Trulli. German driver Timo Glock finished in 20th place, ahead of HRT F1’s Bruno Senna and Virgin teammate Lucas di Grassi, while the grid was completed by Karun Chandhok.
Google News